Fresh Loaf

StoryCorps, a national oral history project that documents stories of everyday people, will be recording in partnership with Atlanta public radio station, 90.1 (WABE-FM), launching its newest StoryBooth on Oct. 22. Interviews have already been collected from over 50,000 Americans in all 50 states. During StoryCorps’ year in Atlanta, it will record stories and life experiences from about 1,500 local residents.

The StoryBooth is located in the WABE studio, 740 Bismark Road, in Atlanta. Make reservations if you want record your story on StoryCorps’ 24-hour reservation line at 1-800-850-4406 or online at www.storycorps.org.

Bookmark It

WABE’s Jim Burress reports the names of two people the Obama administration might name to become the next  U.S. Attorney for Georgia’s Northern District. (Check out his report to see who they are.)

David Nahmias, the previous U.S. Attorney, recently resigned after Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed him to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Bookmark It

In late April, award-winning reporter Odette Yousef of WABE 90.1 FM traveled to Ethiopia with the Carter Center to report on trachoma, an eye illness that can lead to blindness and which has ravaged the African country.

Once a common malady in the United States, trachoma is now concentrated in some of Africa’s most poverty-stricken countries — Ethiopia being one of them. Nearly 85 percent of its population is at risk of acquiring the bacterial illness, which thrives in areas with poor sanitation and hygiene. In Ethiopia, its most common vector is a fly that feeds off ocular and nasal discharges. The lack of clean water for hygiene and large numbers of people living in close quarters only makes trachoma more difficult to tackle.

The Carter Center has launched trachoma control programs in several African countries, but Yousef says Ethiopia has been the biggest challenge. She traveled with the center’s health staff to the country’s northwestern state of Amhara, where the Atlanta-based nonprofit hopes to effectively control the illness by 2012.

Yousef’s five-part series is airing all this week on WABE’s morning newscast. For those of you who might have missed her reports, the station has posted the full series and a large amount of content, including video and photos, on its blogs site.

(Photo by Odette Yousef)

Bookmark It

Denis O’Hayer, a 33-year news veteran and one of the state’s best political reporters, is joining local NPR affiliate WABE 90.1 FM.

Starting on February 2, O’Hayer will locally host Public Radio International’s The World from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., NPR’s All Things Considered from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and American Public Media’s MarketPlace from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. These programs present a mix of local, national and international news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and features on business and economics.

During his 11-year tenure with WXIA-TV, O’Hayer regularly covered local affairs, politics and government – including the Georgia Legislature. He also served as a reporter and anchor for election coverage on 11Alive, My ATL TV and 11Alive.com.

“Denis brings with him a wealth of experience as one of Atlanta’s brightest and most competent reporters in the business,” said John Weatherford, Public Broadcasting Atlanta Senior Vice President and General Manager. “His career in television and radio will complement the station’s efforts to continue to deliver reliable news and information. Our entire news department is looking forward to working with Denis.”

…

“I am thrilled to work with WABE,” O’Hayer said. “The station has established itself as the city’s public radio station and provider of news. The station has a strong credibility all its own, and I’m looking forward to this new journey.”

If you don’t recognize his name, you can rest assured you’ve seen O’Hayer’s face before. He’s the scrappy guy with the gray beard.

Bookmark It

Starting in 2009, Atlanta will be home to StoryCorps‘ super-cool “StoryBooth” project — a radio initiative that highlights the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people.

Atlanta’s NPR affiliate, WABE 90.1, reports:

Atlanta will host StoryCorps’ second permanent StoryBooth in the United States beginning in 2009.  Public Broadcasting Atlanta (PBA) will initially house operations for the Atlanta StoryBooth project.  Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights will permanently house the Atlanta StoryBooth project upon the Center’s opening in 2011.

NPR stations, including WABE, regularly air StoryCorps during “Morning Edition.”

PBA Senior Vice President John Weatherford calls StoryCorps “the nation’s largest and most remarkable oral history project of our time.”

The project, which was founded in 2003, has archived over 24,000 personal interviews of nearly 50,000 participants.  Archives are preserved at the Library of Congress.

Bookmark It

Steve Goss, host of “Morning Edition” on WABE 90.1 FM (our local NPR affiliate), was kind enough to invite me on the show to talk about the Black Mafia Family.

BMF was a $270 million cocaine enterprise that had ties to some of the biggest names in hip-hop. Its co-leaders, Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and his brother, Terry “Southwest T,” were sentenced in September to 30 years in federal prison.

My BMF interview with Goss aired this morning, but you can still listen to it online.

Bookmark It

Just like changing Georgia’s Sunday liquor laws, every couple years a group of NPR-addicted folks bring up the idea of urging WABE, Atlanta’s public radio godsend, to drop its six-hour afternoon block of classical music and replace it with more news. Independent-bookstore owners and dentist offices shore up their resources and successfully quash the uprising. And Lois Reitzes, she of soothing voice and limitless classical music know how, continues to guide us through the day.

Local new-media maven SpaceyG wants to start another insurgency.

I can’t take it any more… 6 hours of classical music programming a day at WABE = 6 too many. Apparently I’m not the only one. So I started a Facebook Group called 6 Hours A Day = 6 Too Many! Please join the group if you’re on Facebook. And let’s let WABE know, by Fall Pledge Drive time too, that we’re very unhappy out here on the receiving end of the airwaves with being held hostage to 6 hours of tedious classical programming a day… especially when we could be hearing some news and talk and other more timely and progressive PUBLIC programming.

I’d be careful, Spacey. Don’t you know Reitzes is part of Atlanta’s Jewish Radio Mafia?

Bookmark It

“Like Maynard, Hillary believes in creating possibilities for all Americans. For 35 years, she’s fought to turn possibilities into realities. From civil rights to universal healthcare, Hillary Clinton has always been on our side.”

— Valerie Jackson, widow of former Mayor Maynard Jackson and host of WABE-FM (90.1)’s book-themed “Between the Lines,” endorses Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.

—–

“Because Obama speaks our language: aspirational humanism. We believe that words of hope change things; similar words are spoken from UU pulpits each Sunday.”

— Making Chutney on support for Sen. Barack Obama among Unitarian Universalist bloggers

—–

“There surely has to be a Republican more competent, able to keep his pants on around female lobbyists, and more mature than the present Speaker of the House . . . Glenn Richardson has proven he cannot be trusted with the power of his office. He uses it for too many small minded purposes. And small minded leaders are dangerous creatures.”

— Erick at Peach Pundit expresses more-than-mild displeasure at fellow Republican, Speaker Glenn Richardson. The inspiration for Erick’s verbal assault: Richardson reportedly stripped Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, of an important House leadership position and made him move his office out of the Capitol because Graves voted to re-elect Georgia DOT Chairman Mike Evans.

Bookmark It

In what amounts to a serious shakeup in its programming, WABE-FM (90.1)’s insertion of the first-rate news show “The World” caused quite the ripple effect starting today. The one-hour news show from Public Radio International, a co-op effort by the BBC and Boston’s WGBH-FM, slid into the 3-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday slot— thereby bumping talk show “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross later to 7 p.m. weekdays.

That’s where the real ripples occurred, because WABE previously had a different show for each weekday’s 7 p.m. time slot. That forced the following changes:

• “Between the Lines,” the locally produced literary show hosted by Valerie Jackson, moved to 7 p.m. Friday.
• “The Infinite Mind,” the syndicated human-behavior program, moves to 7-8 a.m. Saturday as a lead-in to “Saturday Weekend Edition.”
• “Speaking of Faith,” Krista Tippett’s syndicated program on faith, religion and spirituality, moves to 7-8 a.m. Sunday as a lead-in to “Sunday Weekend Edition.”
• “City Arts and Lectures,” the syndicated arts program hosted by actress Linda Hunt, moves to WABE’s HD Radio News & Information Channel (90.1-3) at 3 p.m. Sunday. It will be the only show bumped entirely off the regular radio-dial WABE programming.

With all due respect to Hunt, “City Arts and Lectures” is no great loss. The big trade-off, obviously, is quantity for quality. What evening listeners lose in the variety of so many different quality shows is the more logical placement of the popular and critically acclaimed “Fresh Air” in such a powerful evening slot where it can gain better ratings momentum.

Plus, the addition of “The World” helps deliver high-quality international news programming for WABE at a time when everyone seems to be screaming about keeping everything local. It’s a nice addition.

Check out podcast interviews with Terry Gross and Krista Tippett previously in Creative Loafing, as well as a print interview I did with Gross awhile back.

Bookmark It